>Ser Amantio di Nicolao at 18:59, 26 December 2020

2020-12-26T18:59:29Z

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{{Infobox academic
| honorific_prefix = 
| name = Anne Elizabeth Monius
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| birth_date = {{birth date|1964|02|17}}
| birth_place = [[New Hampshire]], U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2019|08|03|1964|02|17}}
| death_place = [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], U.S.
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| citizenship = US
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| alma_mater = [[Harvard University]]
| thesis_title = In search of 'Tamil Buddhism' : language, literary culture, and religious community in Tamil-speaking South India
| thesis_url = https://hollis.harvard.edu/primo-explore/fulldisplay?context=L&vid=HVD2&search_scope=everything&tab=everything&lang=en_US&docid=01HVD_ALMA212036613240003941
| thesis_year = 1997
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| discipline = [[Indology]]
| sub_discipline = Religion
| workplaces = [[University of Virginia]], [[Harvard Divinity School]]
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| main_interests = Indian religious literature
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'''Anne Elizabeth Monius''' (February 17, 1964 – August 3, 2019) was an American [[Indologist]] and religious scholar. She was a Professor of South Asian Religions at the [[Harvard Divinity School]], best known for her analyses of literary culture to reconstruct the history of faiths in South India.

==Life==
{{Tamil literature}}
Monius was born in [[New Hampshire]] to Felix and Eleanor Monius, who were farmers. Her grandfather was an immigrant to the US from [[Lithuania]].<ref name=ravi>{{cite journal|url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/04/how-a-grade-school-field-trip-led-to-harvard-professorship/|title=Divinity School professor retains her grade-school wonder|first=Abhijith |last=Ravinutala|date=April 8, 2019|journal=The Harvard Gazette}}</ref>

Monius attended [[Hollis/Brookline High School|Hollis Area High School]] in [[Hollis, New Hampshire]], where she was [[valedictorian]] in 1982.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=[[Nashua Telegraph]]|date=June 15, 1982|title=110 awarded diplomas at Hollis Area High|page=7{{hyphen}}A}}</ref> She then went to [[Harvard University]] to study theoretical astrophysics. Inspired by a course on Indian civilisation by [[Diana L. Eck]], she switched majors to South Asian religions.<ref name=ravi/> She obtained her undergraduate degree in 1986, and followed with master's and doctoral degrees (1997) from Harvard.<ref name=hdsobit/>

Monius was married to Wilson Manoharan.<ref name="Monius2001">{{cite book|author=Anne E. Monius|title=Imagining a Place for Buddhism: Literary Culture and Religious Community in Tamil-Speaking South India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CvetN2VyrKcC|date=December 6, 2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-803206-9|page=vi}}</ref>

She died on August 3, 2019.<ref name=hdsobit>{{cite web|title=Remembering Anne Monius, Distinguished Scholar and Dedicated Mentor |url=https://hds.harvard.edu/news/remembering-anne-monius-distinguished-scholar-and-dedicated-mentor#|first=Michael|last=Naughton|publisher=Harvard Divinity School|date=August 5, 2019}}</ref>

==Career==
From 1997 to 2002, Monius taught in the department of religious studies at the [[University of Virginia]]. She joined the [[Harvard Divinity School]] in 2002, where she continued till her death.<ref name=hdsobit/> She was made a full professor in 2004.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2019/8/4/professor-anne-monius-passes-away|title=Beloved Professor Anne Monius Passes Away |date=August 4, 2019|first=David N.|last=Hempton|publisher=Harvard Divinity School}}</ref>

From 2010, Monius was the editor of the [[American Academy of Religion]]'s book series ''Religion in Translation'',<ref>{{cite book|last=Nemec|first=John|title=The Ubiquitous Siva: Somananda's Sivadrsti and His Tantric Interlocutors|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GweFnybyP4gC&pg=PT15|date=July 22, 2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-991054-0|pages=15}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=http://rsnonline.org/index24dd.html?option=com_content&view=article&id=802&Itemid=920|accessdate=August 23, 2019|title=All About AAR/OUP Publications: Religion in Translation Series|journal=Religious Studies News}}</ref> a continuation of the ''Texts and Translations'' series that she co-edited since 2004.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.aarweb.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/Publications/e-Bulletins/2014/2014-17NOV.pdf|title=AAR Publications Committee thanks Anne Monius for Ten Years of Service|journal=AAR E-Bulletin|date=November 2014|accessdate=August 23, 2019}}</ref>

===Research===
Monius studied in [[Chennai]] for two years, researching two Buddhist texts in the [[Tamil language]], the only ones that have survived to date. This formed the basis of her doctoral dissertation, which she expanded to her 2001 book, ''Imagining a Place for Buddhism: Literary Culture and Religious Community in Tamil-Speaking South India''.<ref name=hdsobit/>

This well-received book sought to establish the cultural milieu of the Tamil country from the ''[[Manimekalai]]'' (thought to date from the 6th century) and the ''Virocoliyam'' (11th century). Monius suggested that it was possible to tease out their world even in the absence of contextual background in the form of archaeology or parallel developments in Southeast Asian Buddhism. Her reconstruction of the world of the former text, drawing parallels from the [[Jainism|Jaina]] text ''Cilappatikaram'', appeared however to conflict against it being a one-off, and has been criticised for ignoring the possibility that there was a thriving literary production that drew across a multitude of religious traditions.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kapstein|first= Matthew T.|year=2005|title=Imagining a Place for Buddhism: Literary Culture and Religious Community in Tamil‐Speaking South India. By Anne E. Monius. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Pp. xi+257. $50.00 (cloth)|journal=History of Religions|volume= 45|number=1|pages= 73–76|doi=10.1086/497808}}</ref> Indeed, Monius placed these texts within a pan-Buddhist sphere that worked across languages, establishing connections with Pali and Sanskrit literary productions.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|volume=128|issue=4|year=2008|title=Imagining a Place for Buddhism: Literary Culture and Religious Community in Tamil-Speaking South India, By Anne E. Monius|last=Richman|first=Paula}}</ref>

In her studies of the South Indian ''[[bhakti]]'' tradition, Monius established that it was predominantly a [[Shiva|Saivite]] movement than a [[Vishnu|Vaishnavite]] one. She showed that the Tamil litterateurs did not restrict themselves to their local geography but wished to expand the scope of the Tamil bhakti universe to northern India, including the [[Himalayas]], which are considered to be Shiva's domains, albeit with an understanding that the essential core was a Tamil one.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=The Journal of Hindu Studies|volume=8|issue=3|pages=315–322|title=Bhakti across boundaries, a response|doi=10.1093/jhs/hiv024|first=John S.|last=Hawley|year=2015}}</ref>

Continuing with the theme of religious ecumenism, Monius discussed the presence of the Hindu god [[Krishna]] in two ''non-Hindu'' Tamil texts, the Buddhist ''Manimekalai'' and the Jaina ''Cilappatikaram'', both mentioned above. Krishna's cosmic dance is described, as well as other figures from Krishna-lore (notably [[Balarama]] and [[Radha]]), but as these poems are associated with Hindu tradition, Monius' declaration of their non-Hinduness was questioned.<ref>{{cite journal|journal= Acta Orientalia Vilnensia|volume=8|issue=2|pages=122–124|year=2007|title=Guy L. Beck (ed.). Alternative Krishnas. Regional and Vernacular Variations on a Hindu Deity|doi=10.15388/AOV.2007.2.3726 |first=Bożena|last=Śliwczyńska|doi-access=free}}</ref> On the other hand, linguistic styles enabled a kind of religious chauvinism, with the use of ''correct'' or ''pure'' or ''literary'' Tamil signifying the knowledge of a true God. In medieval Tamil society, predominantly Hindu, this distinction served to mark Jain and Buddhist poets as foreign.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=The Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies|first=Hephzibah|last=Israel|year=2008|volume=15|number=1|title="Words . . . Borrow'd from Our Books": Translating Scripture, Language Use, and Protestant Tamil Identity in Post/colonial South India}}</ref>

==Selected works==
* {{cite book|author=Anne E. Monius|title=Imagining a Place for Buddhism: Literary Culture and Religious Community in Tamil-Speaking South India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CvetN2VyrKcC|year=2001|publisher=Oxford University|isbn=978-0-19-803206-9}}
* {{cite book|editor1=Gil Ben-Herut|editor2=Jon Keune|editor3=Anne E. Monius|title=Regional Communities of Devotion in South Asia: Insiders, Outsiders, and Interlopers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dUmjDwAAQBAJ|date=2019|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-351-02336-8}}

== References ==

{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190508192442/http://hds.harvard.edu/people/anne-e-monius |date=May 8, 2019 |title=Anne E. Monius at Harvard Divinity School}}

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[[Category:2019 deaths]]
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
[[Category:People from New Hampshire]]
[[Category:1964 births]]
[[Category:American Indologists]]
[[Category:American historians of religion]]
[[Category:Hindu studies scholars]]
[[Category:Tamil–English translators]]
[[Category:American people of Lithuanian descent]]
[[Category:20th-century translators]]

Anne E. Monius - Revision history

>Ser Amantio di Nicolao at 18:59, 26 December 2020